Sorry for the long update, you guys. What happened is that I started typing up this chapter and saved it, and somebody from my family accidentally deleted it. So I had to type up the whole thing over again, PLUS finish up writing the chapter. Anyways, I hope you like this one!

Chapter 6

"InuYasha, Kagome," Sango said as she and Miroku walked over. InuYasha leaned down to let Kagome off as Shippo ran over as well. "Are you ok?"

"You found him," Miroku said. "See, I told you he would be fine, Kagome."

"Ok, I was worried, though," said Kagome.

"Did something happen?" Sango asked. "You look awful, InuYasha.

"The plant demon is gone," InuYasha replied, as the other looked at him curiously.

"What do you mean gone?" Miroku softly asked.

"I mean dead. I found a field of flowers, which was a part of IraKouba."

"IraKouba?" Sango curiously asked.

"Yeah. IraKouba, lord of the plant demons. He was the one controlling them all. I had quite a battle with him, but the flowers disappeared soon after I killed him."

"So…the plant demon is dead?" Shippo asked in concern.

"Yep." The half-demon crossed his arms and looked the other way, showing a sign of how proud of himself he was. "So you don't have to worry about those stupid plants anymore."

"Well, that's a relief," said Miroku.

Shippo curiously looked at Kagome and saw some sadness in the girl's eyes. Kagome…

"Well then I guess we can move on now," Sango said.

"InuYasha, what did you do?" Shippo asked angrily, which silenced everyone and made everyone curious. Kagome, too, was curious, but she was sure that she didn't like what he just started.

"What are you talking about it?" the half-demon asked angrily with a glare.

The fox child pointed at him. "Kagome's upset, and I'm sure it's something you did!"

"Huh?" Kagome let out in a whisper. Did she really look upset? She did feel a little happy that Shippo cared about her, but she really didn't want to get into it. Especially after that horrible dream she had.

InuYasha looked at Kagome curiously, wondering why she would be sad. He had no idea what he could have done, and he was getting really tired of people blaming him for her sadness. He looked back at Shippo with a glare. "I didn't do crap!"

"But there's always something-" Before he could finish, he received a hard wack on the head by InuYasha's fist. The child started to whimper why rubbing his head.

"InuYasha…!" Kagome let out angrily. Her shoulders were straight up and her arms were straight down. It was a sign that the half-demon didn't like, and he gave her a scared look, hoping that she would spare him this time.

But the next thing InuYasha knew, he fell face flat in the ground, once Kagome used the word "Sit" on the enchanted beads of subjugation that he wore around his neck.

As Kagome and Kaede prepared for their lunch picnic, Miroku, Sango, and Shippo all sat under InuYasha's favorite tree, which InuYasha himself was sitting up on branch with his legs and arms crossed and his eyes closed.

"So then we'll stay here again tonight," Miroku said to the others, "and we'll leave tomorrow morning to look for the jewel shards."

"Sounds like a plan," Sango agreed.

The half-demon opened his eyes when he heard those annoying words. "Hold up!" he said as he broke out of his original position and looked down to the others. "We aren't waiting again till the next morning to travel. We're leaving one we're finished eating."

"Kagome was upset with you, so we think a night of cooling her off would do her some good," Shippo said.

Before InuYasha could reply Kagome's voice did so instead. "You guys, I'm fine."

Everyone, including InuYasha turned to see the girl holding a picnic basket filled with hers and Kaede's cooking.

"Don't worry, Kagome," said Shippo, "we'll take care of InuYasha for you."

The half-demon glared as Miroku and Sango put in their similar comments. It made him furious that everyone bugged him about this because he couldn't think of anything he could of done to hurt Kagome. In fact, he figured things were perfectly fine since they haven't fought recently, taking away the hassle he had with Shippo.

"How many times do I have to say," Kagome said annoyingly, "I'm not upset with anybody! Let's drop it, ok?"

By the big silence, InuYasha knew that everyone was convinced, so he jumped down from the three to join the others. "So it's settled; we go after we eat."

Nobody else argued with the idea, and together ate their picnic lunch.

"I made some soup," said Kagome, "so it should help out with your cold, Shippo."

The fox-demon was glad to see a smile on the girl's face again, and it made him smile himself. "Thanks Kagome."

"Feel any better, Shippo?" InuYasha nicely asked.

"Yeah, I'm feeling a lot better, but I'll still take the soup."

InuYasha rolled his eyes, knowing that Shippo was just messing with him, making sure that he wouldn't take the soup instead of himself. But instead of fighting, he continued on his own meal as if he hadn't eaten in days. It was a normal thing for him whenever it was time to chow down.

Just as planned, once Kagome had all her things packed, the group started their travels soon after lunch. They were always willing to travel around to collect the shards of the Shikon Jewel, even though they knew that their adventures would sometimes be perilous, but were always prepared for a battle.

After a few hours, though, nobody could find a thing; not even a demon or a human to fight, and it started to get irritating, especially for the half-demon.

InuYasha groaned as everyone walked by a riverbank. "This is ridiculous," he started, "a few hours and we haven't found a thing."

"Patience is what we need," Marko replied calmly, "it's a big country, and fairly normal not to find anything on the first day."

"I know that! Don't think I just started this today, Miroku. I'm just gonna crack if I don't find something to do in the next ten minutes."

"Calm down."

As the girls rolling their eyes walked behind the men, Shippo pounced behind them as he chased a purple butterfly. Without anyone noticing, he slid down the ledge to the river and continued chasing the flying insect.

The fox-demon was about to pounce when he suddenly noticed a big plant about the same size of him right in front of him. His heart started pounding like crazy when he noticed it was a familiar big red plant.

Shippo gasped and looked up at his companions. "You guys! Come here and look what I found!" His voice was shaky and scared, which brought InuYasha down in a second. "What is it, Shippo? What do you see?"

The fox child nervously pointed down, and InuYasha gasped once he saw it.

"What's the matter, Shippo?" Kagome asked as she and the others made it down also.

InuYasha let out a growl, which got everyone's attention.

"InuYasha?" Kagome asked.

"It's back."

"Hm?"

"One of the plants is back. Which means IraKouba is still alive."

Both Sango and Miroku looked around but couldn't see anything suspicious. "I don't sense any demonic aura," Miroku stated.

"Yeah, but the demon has to be near by!" InuYasha angrily unsheathed his sword and destroyed the plant in a second. He angrily put his sword back. The plant demon lord had still been alive and the half-demon didn't like this one bit.

"We're gonna have to search for this IraKouba," Miroku suggested.

InuYasha swore out loud and clenched his fist and teeth. "I thought I killed him. The field of flowers disappeared at that point!"

"It must have been an illusion you saw," Sango guessed.

"InuYasha," Kagome started, "we have to go find him."

As the others continued their discussion, Shippo noticed something move in the water, and moved closer to it. Huh? What is that? After leaning in to get a good look at whatever it was he saw the fox-demon suddenly fell forward and into the water.

Kagome was the first one to notice Shippo, and immediately took action. "Shippo!" she cried and right away dove in after him.

"Kagome!" InuYasha exclaimed as Miroku and Sango called out her name also.

Kagome continued to swim down under toward the frightened fox demon. She knew the kid couldn't swim and nothing was stopping her from saving him.

InuYasha worriedly stared at the moving river, waiting for Kagome to come back up. But even after a moment, knowing Kagome was pretty well swimmer, the girl still didn't come back yet, and all three of them remained worried. InuYasha would go after her if she didn't come back any second.

Finally, after one and a half minutes, Kagome popped up above the surface with Shippo in her arms. Before anyone could react, though, a big rapid pushed the girl back down.

"Kagome!" InuYasha screamed, and with his heart racing, jumped into the water.

"InuYasha!" Sango called out.

As the boy remained still under the water, the half-demon searched for Kagome. Come on, Kagome. After ten seconds, he finally spotted the girl swimming back up.

Once Kagome came back above the surface, she realized she was further away from the others.

"Kagome!" somebody shouted, which sounded like Sango's voice.

Kagome gasped repeatedly as she tired to keep Shippo and herself above the water.

"Kagome!" The girl quickly turned her head and immediately saw InuYasha swimming her way. "Inu—" before she could finish, another rapid pushed Shippo out of her arms and down the river.

"Kagome!" the child cried.

"Shippo!"

"Kirarla!" Sango commanded, and the cat demon transformed into her huge self so her owner and Miroku could get on to help their friends.

Kagome forced herself after the fox, ignoring InuYasha's calling. She kept going, and just before she could reach Shippo, she was pushed under again.

Kagome bravely swam back up, and was able to grab a hold of a tree trunk.

"Kagome!" InuYasha screamed again as he swam by the girl.

"InuYasha, get Shippo!" she called out.

The half-demon wanted Kagome to be saving, but once he saw Kirala flying down, he knew she would be and went straight after Shippo.

The fox-demon tried his best to stay above the water, but not being able to swim, he sunk down. The boy wiggled his arms and legs, but no matter how he tried, he couldn't move up; at least not until he felt big strong arms on him.

Once they were up the surface, the kid gasped and fearfully climbed onto InuYasha's head to keep himself above the water.

"Hang on, Shippo!" InuYasha called and thought about using his supernatural strength to jump out. But before he could, he was mysteriously pulled right under right after hearing Kagome call out his name.